


Spice Fish Stew

by Cassandra14



Series: Two Universes Over [15]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26057227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassandra14/pseuds/Cassandra14
Summary: Korra thought she wouldn't be homesick.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Tenzin
Series: Two Universes Over [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/61893
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	Spice Fish Stew

Naga lolled on her back, paws wriggling in the air.

Grinning, Korra ruffed the fur on her belly. "Who's my good girl?"

Naga's tail thumped. She yipped.

"That's right, you're my good girl," crooned Korra.

She scratched the polar-bear dog's belly for a few minutes before withdrawing her hand. Naga rolled and whined.

"Sorry, girl, I'll try to bring you a treat after dinner okay?"

This consoled Naga, who licked Korra's face.

"Down, girl," Korra said, rubbing Naga's ears. "I'll be back later."

On the climb up to the main Temple, Korra took a moment to stop and smell the breeze. This side of the island, facing away from the city, it bore the clean scent of the ocean, untouched by the city's aromas of people and metal.

There was no ice though. No snow.

If this were fall at home, everyone would be preparing for the long dark of the winter. They would be stockpiling food and furs and fuel to last until spring. Back home, the number of ships arriving would be dwindling, fearful of the storms, the cold, and the increasing dark. There'd be a rush to finish any constructions or repairs. Back home, her mother would be tanning hides and making candles while her father hunted and brought in as much game as he could.

Here, Korra sweated straight through her shirts when she practiced stances with Sora or Tenzin and wondered how the people here didn't melt in summer.

Korra resumed her climb, mumbling, "They call this fall?"

"It's way too hot to be fall," she groused. "Way, way too hot." She focused her thoughts on the temperature in hopes of suppressing the sharp pang in her chest. It didn't really work.

Three weeks since she'd left home. She'd thought she wouldn't miss it and she didn't - not the compound, not the endless rounds of tests, not the high walls - but she hadn't counted on missing her parents. She'd thought she was accustomed to doing without them, mostly, but she could no longer hop on Naga and be with them inside an hour. Now, she couldn't even call them; no phone lines connected across the ocean to the Southern Water Tribe. Letters were about all she could count on. 

Korra shook herself. She sprang up the last few steps and headed for the family section of the Temple.

Partway across the courtyard, she halted. Her nostrils flared as she sniffed.

She sniffed again.

And again.

"Spice fish stew?" Korra asked the air. Using her nose as a guide, she followed the scent to a side door, down a short hallway, and into the family's kitchen.

"Oh hi!" she exclaimed.

Knife not pausing, Beifong glanced at Korra and replied, "Hello, Korra."

She finished slicing the filet into inch-thick pieces. Tilting the board, she scraped them into a bowl already three-quarters full. She pulled another filet onto the board and began to cut.

Edging towards the stove, Korra protected her hand with a towel and lifted the lid of the pot. Steam enveloped Korra, rich with onion, lemongrass, pepper and ginger.

"You're making fish stew?" Korra's pitch rose on the last word, making the question one of startled disbelief.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" countered Beifong.

"Um...well…." Korra replaced the lid and turned around. "But you're - I mean - you're not Water Tribe."

"No."

"Then how…" Korra gestured at the fish and twisted briefly to include the pot.

"Katara taught me."

"She did?" Curiosity engaged, Korra asked, "After you married Tenzin? Which would be weird because he's all Airbender-ish and doesn't eat meat and -"

"No, when I was much younger than that."

Korra frowned in confusion. Beifong raised a brow and asked, "Why does that seem odd to you?"

"It's just, I didn't think you liked cooking," replied Korra.

"I see. Get me a plate, please." Beifong nodded at a cabinet to Korra's right. Korra did and Beifong placed it over the bowl of fish, then handed the bowl to Korra. "Put this in the icebox. The rest needs to simmer for a while longer before I can cook the fish."

As Korra found a place for the bowl, Beifong continued, "It's true. I'm not fond of cooking. I don't enjoy it the way Katara, or Rohan does."

Beifong dumped the cutting board and knife into the sink. She washed and dried both her tools and her hands while Korra held back the questions on the tip of her tongue.

Handing Korra the cutting board, Beifong directed, "Second bottom cabinet on the right, third drawer down." She replaced the knife in its block.

"My mother didn't cook," Beifong said. "She could do eggs or toast, maybe noodles with some vegetables or meat, but that's all. Not because she's blind, but because she's never bothered to learn. For a very long time, it was just easier to go out to dinner or buy something on the way home or cook something really simple."

"In the beginning, I was okay with that. Most of the time I understood. But as I got older, old enough to care for Su, I started to get tired of it. I'd come here and…" Beifong paused. She cleared her throat. "Point being, I asked Katara to teach me."

"Oh. All right." Korra held up a finger. "One more question?"

"Go ahead."

"Who's Su?"

"You don't know who Su is?"

"Nope."

"What in Oma's name _did_ they teach you?" asked Beifong rhetorically.

"Bending," Korra answered anyways.

"And nothing else," said Beifong. "You should at least know - never mind - Su's my sister."

"Your sister? As in Toph had more than one kid?"

"Yes."

"Wooh. Did not know that. Tenzin never mentioned anything."

"He wouldn't. My sister and I -" Beifong scowled and huffed. "It's complicated."

"What do you mean -" Beifong glared at Korra. Korra snapped her mouth shut. A second later, she said, "Right. Okay."

Jerking a thumb towards the door, Korra said, "I'm just going to go now."

"You do that. Dinner will be ready in half an hour."

"Gotcha. Thanks." Korra left.

It wasn't her mother's recipe - wrong fish, heavier on the peppers, a couple of added ingredients, absence of blubber. Nor was it as pleasant to eat hot soup in warm weather as it would have been in cold.

Yet Korra still devoured two full bowls.

Afterwards, she borrowed sheets of writing paper from Akira. In the morning, a thick letter began its journey to the South Pole.

* * *

~~~ _Three Days Previous~~~_

"Getting homesick a bit?" asked Rohan of Korra. The young woman toyed with her armbands. On the opposite side of the room, Beifong slowed in her perusal of academy reports.

"Maybe a little." Korra sighed. "I just...I keep craving Spiced Fish Stew."

She never noticed the flick of Beifong's eyes in her direction.

"One dish I haven't mastered yet," Rohan said. He shrugged. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Korra got to her feet. "I'm bored. Let's go see if your sisters will play cards."

"Sure." The pair departed.

Lin used the clean back of a page to start a shopping list.


End file.
